As of tonight, I am planning to be an assistant leader at Awana. We'll see what happens. Two weeks ago was my first time back to Awana since 6th grade. It was very weird, and even more scary. Dealing with younger kids has been something I want to be good at, but never felt particularly confident in. So here is the plunge into the only opportunity to do something that I am seeing.

My grandparents from Tahoe arrived yesterday. =) Yesterday was my Grandma's birthday, and tomorrow is my Mom's. Hopefully it will be a fun week, which, of course, it will be because my Grandparents are made of fun.


My parents and I started The Cape last week, which was very fun and did not disappoint. I found it just serious enough to get emotionally involved and light enough to not mind it being Batman with Summer Glau.

A lot has happened, but I have not taken any pictures to catalogue the events. However, Emerwen visited in December which was very nice. We didn't do a ton, but she said she had fun and I'll....I'll...let go of my perfectionism to believe her.

So far this year is looking like it will be another crazy one, but hopefully a happier year. Many of our friends passed away or were hospitalized last year. Of course, we also got to see an even larger number of our friends, and my Grammy is doing much better. :) Thank God.

That's all for now, I guess. Hope to update again soon. Though don't expect pictures, because that's the biggest reason why I procrastinate.

First 3 Days of NaNoWriMo

Well, I have been procrastinating on updating my blog--but not on NaNoing. It is day 4, and while I haven't written yet today, I have yet to fall behind. (If you're thinking "of course not, it's week 1. Really." I'm usually behind by day 2.)

My average per day is 2k, and an average I am perfectly happy with. I hope after this three day-long headache goes away, to potentially up that.

Day 1:

Was a nightmare. Okay, a nightmare is a bit of an exageration. However, I still had no clue on what I was going to be writing about. I went through maybe three story beginnings ((which are strikethroughed so the words still count :P)) before finally landing on one that flows. :)

I managed to get in that 2k with some word wars with the awesome Miruial, Mangy and Yukioh. And voila, the story is flowing.

It is nothing special, which before would have made me cringe, but after taking a year long break from rules and in general writing, I'm thinking this story might actually come out non-barf worthy, even if it is cliched to no end.

My setting is an scientifically advanced city amidst an outer jungle, and the government is a monarchy. My MC has qualities of the 40s noir detective, and has been having problems with a certain mole in government. He has three personas, that one, that of a master thief and he is unintentionally engaged to the princess--who he has grown to love, but is not exactly sure how to explain to her her actual fiance died months back. He is pegged for being the mole, resulting in being arrested, and the villain revealed as pretty much insane.

The alternate plotlines I tried were 1) a world of silence and a pseudo-peace and happiness and 2) Rune's retirement story. The latter will be written at some point in time, but I am uncertain if I can write that. I'll probably use the idea dearest Joelle gave me and loophole. :)

On Non-NaNo News, my Aunt Mary and cousin Chelsea from Texas arrived on November 1st! It has been about ten years since we last saw them, so this is very exciting indeed. I haven't been with them too, too much, but it has been lovely having them visit. :) I will be muchly sad when they leave, they're so awesome to have around.

Day 2:

This was another difficult day to get started, due to only recently learning my story, and having introduced my MC I knew almost nothing about right before going to bed. Those few paragraphs from the night before got strikethroughed and thrown at the top with the axed plot ideas. However, I finally learned more about him and my villain and was happy with the results.

Day 2 eventually flowed fairly well. =)

Day 3:

Aunt Mary, Chelsea, Mom, Joelle and I all left the house (!!!), and headed over to Target, then Wal-Mart. There was this uber nifty jacket at Target, but I decided against getting it due to the large amount of jackets we have. Spending money on clothes makes me cringe unless it's just the most perfect thing. I was also going to get some of those amazing whale crackers and a calendar (all in the $1 section), but decided against it. I just didn't feel like spending money there. I did get an Eggnog Frappe at Starbucks (my Mommy got it for me :) ) as I was waiting for everyone else to be done, due to my headache. It was extremely good, and I will probably be getting it again in the future before it is gone again. Yay eggnog!

I sat there at one of the tables, poking away at The Vanishing Sculpture, and like any book I procrastinate on reading, am enjoying it. =) It was a bit odd because I felt stared at by this one guy who was sitting there, just watching people almost the whole time I was there. It's so fun to watch people, but when you are seen as watching people then it is kind of creepy, unless you are constantly smiling.

The next stop was Wal-Mart, where I made my mandatory dig through the $5 Bin--found nothing. I fluctuated on James and the Giant Peach, but then found part 1 of Soul Eater for $10, and went for that instead. I am still utterly shocked that was so cheap. And rather suspsicious. Hm. They had a lot of good anime in their "Featured Films" section (it was actually all anime. O_o) However, $10 for one volume of something when you can get the whole series in ONE boxset for 30-60, is not a screaming bargain.

At Wal-Mart, I also finally got my bottle of Mountain Dew for NaNo, which I just now broke into. But I don't foresee needing it much. :( So far NaNo this year has been a breeze (for the most part) but not exactly fun.

Today:

The only thing to report for today is that Jpeg keeps running off with Chelsea's jewelry and bobby pins. Bad cat. It's funny though...